In my eariler U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,673, issued Sept. 30, 1975, a mesh-like mold is disclosed which is positioned about the head of the user and which has a surface contour corresponding to a selected hair style or coiffure. Hot air is then blown through the mesh-like mold so as to dry the hair in accordance with the shape of the mold.
With the mold of the aforementioned patent, it is necessary to manually dry individual sections of the hair. Also, there is a possibility that with hair which is limp or heavily moistened, the force of the air from the external manual blower will cause the hair to be blown away from contact with the mold.
With a currently popular hair style known as an "afro" or "natural", the entire head of hair is to be styled such that each individual strand stands straight out from the scalp. Such hair styles, emphasizing the natural texture of "kinky" or "wooly" hair, require for acceptable appearance, an outer surface having a smooth continuing curved contour without creating a matted or pasted down appearance. With the mesh-like mold of my previous patent, such a hair style could be created with careful application of an external blower for generating airflow externally through the mesh towards the head of the individual. However, as noted above, in many cases, it would also be desirable to selectively permit airflow outwardly from the head of the user so as to align strands of the hair outwardly from the head of the user towards and into contact with an inner surface of the mold.